Yes, Samsung is prepping a smartwatch

Posted March 19, 2013 - 11:30
by
Shane McGlaun

It almost seems like rumors of Apple's alleged iWatch came out of nowhere just a few months ago.

However, a deluge of similar products from competing industry heavyweights were soon announced, with some analysts predicting the Apple iWatch could ultimately be worth as much as $6 billion to Cupertino.

Apple rival Samsung had previously been rumored to be working on its own smartwatch, although that report has now been confirmed by Samsung vice president Lee Young Hee. However, other than confirming that Samsung is working on a smartwatch, Lee offered no additional details about the project.

That means we still have no idea when the watch will launch, what it might cost or what hardware will be inside. You can bet if Samsung thinks Apple is bringing a smartwatch to market soon the corporation will attempt to beat Cupertino to the punch. Of course, one of the biggest unknowns at this point is exactly what the watch is designed to do.

We can assume it will allow users to control music playback and other media from the watch face rather than their smartphone. It would also be a safe bet to say the device will run Google's Android operating system and would likely be usable only with Android devices.

Similarly, the watch will likely display notifications for incoming texts, calls and e-mails, all while offering the user the ability to start and stop calls right from the watch.